White Page of Death: WordPress PHP Problem Solving

by Jack Humphrey on Jun 1

Have you ever updated a post, written a new post, or otherwise worked on your WordPress blog and hit a button only to be greeted with the “white page of death?”

This is a page that has nothing on it and all you can do is hit the back button to get back to where you were before you hit “update” or “publish.”  (Or any number of things.  Often the change or new content took, but you didn’t get taken to the success page you were supposed to see.  PHP just stops working for some reason.

Why The White Pages of Death Happen

It is a php error.  And I’d say the #1 cause is a plugin.  The frustration levels this problem brings about are the highest you can reach as a blogger who is just trying to get work done.

Here’s what to do about it…

This is painful.  Very painful.  And time consuming.  Very time consuming.  But you have no choice.  Some plugin you use is causing this unless you’ve done something weird in your code by hand, like your wp-config.php file.

Since most people don’t know how and know better than to edit WordPress code by hand, your problem is a plugin.  Don’t go looking for answers on this one, you won’t find them.  Very few people had anything close to an answer to this except for the few recommended below.  Huge problem.  Widespread.  Few answers to be had.

It seems no one knows what to really do in this situation.  Well, someone had to step up!

1.  Turn off all your plugins.  I know.  This sucks.  Just do it and let’s get this over with.

2.  One by one, turn them back on.  Each time you turn one on, try to replicate the White Page of Death by doing what was causing it before you turned off plugins.

3.  No white page?  Keep going until you’ve isolated which plugin is causing the problem.

I guarantee you won’t miss the plugin that’s doing it.  I don’t care what the hell it does for your blog, it’s not worth the white page of death syndrome you’ve just fixed.

Resources

This is stuff I found while working on this problem.  If the above doesn’t fix yours, maybe something down below might.  I feel your pain.  I’ve been there.  I’ll probably go there again.  But now you know what to do to fix those blank screens of satan’s minions.

Note:  The name of this problem is usually something starting with “White Screen of….”  The names above are my own creation.  That’s just how I feel, and I’m not alone, about the problem and how big of a pain in the ass it was to find a fix!

Tagged as: php errors wordpress, white screen, white screen of death, wordpress troubleshooting

  • http://fredhopkins.com Fred

    Yes, truly a pain in the . . .you know. .

    It’s even more fun if you get it on your blog root and admin login page! Then you have to use File manager or FTP to rename your plugin folders so that they automatically get deactivated. Then you do the process in reverse, correcting the names of your plugin folders and reactivating them until you find the culprit!

    . . .but then again I could of did it the hard way. . .

  • http://mamasontheweb.com Cassie

    You know, I mess around in WordPress all day long, every day, on multiple blogs – and I’ve never seen the white screen of death. I’ve seen a billion other errors that make me wanna barf (and usually a plugin is to blame for those too) but never that one. Now that I’ve read this post, I bet I’ll get that page next time I try to publish a post.

    • http://www.jackhumphrey.com/ Jack Humphrey

      @Cassie – I’m sorry about that. Last thing I wanted to do is curse you or anyone with a new problem, lol. You must be a light plugin user or insanely lucky. Actually, this reading this post is like the video in The Ring. In 7 days from reading it, you’ll see a white screen! lol

  • http://mamasontheweb.com Cassie

    No I try to keep the plugins to a minimum. I’m a minimalistic kinda gal. And I won’t be waiting 7 days to see the screen. In fact, after I submitted my last comment here I got a white screen! WTF… Slightly eerie.

    • http://www.jackhumphrey.com/ Jack Humphrey

      @Cassie – that IS freaky. Wow – now if I could use my powers for good, think what could happen! The plugins thing helped, but I got the screen again tonight. A refresh brought up the right page, so it’s better than before where nothing but hitting the back button worked. Now have ticket in to server admin to increase PHP memory to min 16 mb. Another solution I read about in a few places. Damn the evil white page of death!

  • http://blogfred.com Mark Leonard

    I had this very same problem but mine was a little different. I run a WordPress MU site, so I had other bloggers on their own sub domains and I really had a nightmare.

    After about 2 days of desperation, I found the answer as described by Jack.

    We are all on the bleeding edge and we all want the latest wiz bang, Some of us pay the price for that.

  • http://mamasontheweb.com Cassie

    You don’t have access to your server? You just need to add a tiny line of code to your .htaccess file to increase memory if my own crappy memory serves me right. I just had to do that the other day actually. Death screens suck.

  • Pingback: Wordpress White Page Of Death | Game Review Database

  • http://www.eutimes.net Ave Caesar

    Lol! Im having the white screen of death everywhere! In admin, when publishing an article, when READING an article, when trying to post a comment. It seems that I have an advanced version of White Screen.
    I think I have White Screen version 2.0! :) ) Instead of being very furious and angry, I chose to laugh but if I won’t be able to fix this, Im gonna start cursing the developers of WordPress… LOL!

  • http://www.xigko.com Barbara

    Usually when I get plagued with WSOD it isn’t a bad plugin, it’s a goof in a php file where there is an extra line AFTER the closing ?>
    It can happen easily either when you are editing a file, or sometimes a plugin or theme makes an update in something critical like functions.php At least 75% of the time I find an extra line at the end of a file and bam, WSOD!

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